As trials with potentially significant implications go, this one moved quickly. It culminates on Wednesday.
Only three weeks after the jury was selected, the jury will get its chance to rule on the case.
Via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press, the final day of courtroom proceedings begins at 9:00 a.m. PT, with the reading of jury instructions.
Roughly 90 minutes later, the plaintiffs’ lawyers will deliver the first part of their closing argument, with 70 minutes allotted. The NFL’s lawyers will get their final say to the jury after the lunch break, with another 70 minutes. The plaintiffs’ lawyers will then have 20 minutes to rebut the NFL, with the jury thereafter getting the case.
Even if the jury rules for the plaintiffs, the judge could still enter judgment notwithstanding the verdict to the NFL. As Reedy points out, the presiding judge on Tuesday denied the plaintiffs’ request for judgment as a matter of law. However, he did not rule on the NFL’s request. He’ll do so after the verdict.
He could have denied the NFL’s motion, allowing a fresh motion to be made after the verdict is returned. The fact that he has tabled the issue could be a sign that he’s planning to enter judgment for the NFL, if the jury doesn’t find for the league.
Thus, even if the jury returns with a verdict for the plaintiffs — and even if the amount is the kind of thing that generates front-page headlines from coast to coast — the judge can still say, “Sorry, plaintiffs, you failed to prove your case.”
For now, the next step involves teeing up the jury to deliberate. After the jury finishes its work, the judge could still make quick work of the entire case and rule for the NFL.
Billions potentially hang in the balance, depending on whether the jury is persuaded by the evidence of financial losses that the plaintiffs presented. It’s possible that, like the USFL vs. NFL trial from 38 years ago, the plaintiffs will win but the damages will be minimal. (The USFL won all of one dollar, which was tripled to three dollars by the federal antitrust laws.)
However it plays out, the NFL rarely finds itself in this posture. Even with a win, the league might need to reconsider the pricing requirements it places on the Sunday Ticket package in order to prevent a future antitrust case arguing that the league improperly requires Sunday Ticket to be overpriced as an all-or-nothing product in order to protect the broadcast networks that televise games in local affiliates across the country.
If, as the judge suggested last week, the plaintiff’s lawyers grossly overcomplicated the case, a fresh set of plaintiffs and a new group of lawyers could use the potential misadventures from the current case as the blueprint for the next one.
